In the name of the democracy, please
The executive presidency split the state power that had been concentrated in parliament, and a large part of it now sits with a directly elected president. Parliament is nonetheless still the country’s supreme political institution — and this is an argument addressed to its new Speaker.
Way out of the present crisis
The President’s attempt to form a government with the support of other parties is like collecting frogs into an open basket. The government will not accept Rauf Hakeem’s condition that the four commissions be set up within a hundred days, so she is pushed towards abandoning him for Ferial Ashraff.
කැබිනට් මණ්ඩලයක් පත්වූ පමණකින් ස්ථාවරභාවයක් ඇති නොවේ
The government has formed the largest cabinet in the history of Sri Lanka’s Parliament, but with only 116 members it lacks a working majority and a small storm could bring it down, while the President cannot dissolve Parliament for a year. Ivan argues that the best course is a temporary all-party government built on consensus for a programme of democratic reform, since an electoral system rotten with violence and ballot plunder no longer commands public trust.
ස්ථාවර ආණ්ඩුවක් පිහිටුවීම අසීරුයි
Ivan calls the October 2000 poll the biggest ballot plunder in parliamentary history, yet the People’s Alliance won only 107 seats and lacks a majority even with the EPDP. He compares the 1994 arithmetic, notes the Muslim Congress’s resentment after Ashraff’s death and his National Unity Alliance’s four seats, and warns that EU observers’ findings could hit aid or bring sanctions. The JVP emerged strong and disciplined, the UNP was complacent, and the Sihala Urumaya was routed.
විය හැක්කේ කුමක්ද?
The editorial analyses the likely shape of the new Parliament. The People’s Alliance held about 129 seats through the Muslim Congress, Ceylon Workers’ Congress and EPDP, but splits in the first two and the EPDP’s weak prospects in Jaffna threaten that base, while the JVP may win eight to ten seats. Neither major party is likely to pass 100 seats, and any result may push the executive presidency into crisis, possibly ending in a national government.
සැප වාහන ප්රතික්ෂේප කරන විරුද්ධ පක්ෂ පිළිවෙත අගේ කළ යුතුයි
Ivan praises the UNP parliamentary group’s decision on duty-free vehicles for MPs, a practice the UNP itself began. It proposes either vehicles on a depreciation basis or a pool of vehicles not owned by MPs, as the JVP suggested, and says MPs completing ten years will forgo a third duty-free vehicle. If most of the opposition holds to this, the government cannot keep the privilege for itself.
Playing with the sovereignty of the people
The printing of the draft constitution finished on Sunday 30 July and it went to the cabinet on the 31st. Every minister approved a 209-page document none of them had read, because there had been no time to read it. On 2 August it went to the Chief Justice.
අගමැතිනියගේ හතළිස්වැනි අගමැති සංවත්සරය
Marking forty years since Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first woman prime minister, the editorial honours her but questions her holding office at 84 when her health prevents her from performing the duties of a post that, though diminished, still answers to Parliament and acts for the President. Citing Roosevelt and Mandela on fitness for office, it calls the practice a waste of public money and an indignity to her, and notes the similar case of bedridden deputy minister P.B.G. Kalugalla.
සිය කැමැත්තෙන් හිරවීම
Ivan calculates that even repeating its presidential vote would give the People’s Alliance and allies only about 115 of 225 seats under district proportional representation, and 103 if its vote fell ten percent. Intra-party preference contests make rigging harder, hence the push for a mixed system, which needs a two-thirds majority, a referendum and six months. A hostile Parliament could elect the Speaker, impeach the President or cut her funds, a trap of the President’s own making.
පාර්ලිමේන්තු මැතිවරණයකට කෙරෙන ගණන් බැලිම
With Parliament’s term ending on 24 August, Ivan weighs the government’s options. Extending the term would unite the UNP, JVP and Sihala Urumaya; under proportional representation even 4.3 million votes would give the alliance only about 115 seats. He explains the proposed mixed system of 260 members designed to curb the JVP and Sihala Urumaya, which would need a two-thirds vote and a referendum, and the crisis a hostile Parliament would pose for an executive president, as N.M. Perera foresaw.